Entertainment Rewind 2011: Winners and Losers

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It’s been a big year in celebrity. The prominence of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and reality TV kept even marginal celebrities in the spotlight (we see you, Joe Budden and Jim Jones), with tons of bloggers and TMZ ready to blow up even the most innocuous postings. Of course, plenty of celebs are now using Twitter as their publicist, announcing everything from weddings to births and sparring with their rivals and fans across cyberspace.

Here’s our look at who stayed up, came up, held up or went far down the celebrity pecking list in the year 2011. Given that so many entertainers who used to be good at actually, you know, creating the art that made them famous in the first place are now just enjoying fame without any work attached, we took our list of winners and losers from the few who actually did do something.

WINNERS

JAY-Z

This dude just stays winning. He’s filthy rich, he’s still cool, he puts out good work, and oh, yeah, he’s married to the only black woman in America, aside from Oprah Winfrey, who makes more money than him. (Okay, billionaire Sheila Johnson of BET fame counts, too.) Imagine their household – “Baby did you pay that $100,000,000 bill today?” “Oh, shoot, honey, I forgot. You got me?” And this year, Jay and his famous bride almost singlehandedly took down Twitter when Beyonce announced her pregnancy at the MTV Music Awards in August. He and Kanye also released the critically acclaimed “Watch the Throne,” cementing their creative dominance of hip-hop once again, then toured to sold-out audiences. All in all, 2011 was a memorable year for the world’s biggest rap icon.

RIHANNA

Jay’s protégé Rihanna enjoyed a lovely 2011 as well. She toured the world, hit back at haters on Twitter and released a brand new CD, “Talk That Talk.” With B’s album “4” not quite the critical or commericial juggernaut of her previous ones, Rihanna stole the most prominent female music personality of the year with ease. Competition? Even her haters know she’s on top; that’s why they hate so hard. Rih Rih continued to show up and show out, whether it was in traditional costume for Carnival in her Barbados hometown or yachting around the world on vacay. Rihanna continued to show the world how to rebound from a bad situation with grace. Near the end of the year, she also took on a racist Dutch blogger who called her style “n—b—.” What? Rihanna tweeted “Well with all respect on behalf of my race….F— YOU!” Read her whole tweet here. This is why Rihanna wins.

VANESSA BRYANT

Kobe Bryant’s soon to be ex-wife settled an entire divorce without the world even knowing they were in trouble. We don’t know exactly what happened (Kobe’s cheating is alleged – surprise, surprise!), but we know one thing: Vanessa Laine Bryant, just 29 years old, has made the ultimate come-up – from a 17-year-old music video aspirant to an ex-NBA wife worth about $75 million, if Kobe’s fortune is indeed worth the $150 million estimated. The couple lives in a community property state and had no pre-nuptial agreement.